The present invention is in the field of athletic training devices, particularly balance training devices.
In addition to its benefits for overall health and injury prevention, ability to balance is essential to many athletic endeavors. Some activities, such as gymnastics and cheerleading, additionally require participants to maintain balance at a significant elevation above the ground or floor. Loss of balance during such activities is of course particularly hazardous. Cheerleading and other group performance activities may also include the complication that a participant must balance on the relatively irregular surface of a human hand (or pair of hands), shoulder, or other body part (such as an arm, leg, or back). To reduce the hazards associated with training and performance of elevated maneuvers in group performance activities, a training aid providing practice balancing on a relatively unstable surface at a reduced elevation would be desirable.